Puyallup students sue over sex story

Four current and former high-school students filed a lawsuit against the Puyallup School District on Wednesday claiming they were harassed and called "sluts" and "whores" after a student newspaper printed a story that detailed their sex lives.

The two current and two former Emerald Ridge High students said that JagWire reporters did not have their consent to print their names along with their testimonials on their sexual experiences earlier this year, the lawsuit states. The students, who were identified by name in the article, claim they were sexually harassed, mocked and jeered by other students after the story was published.

The students are seeking an undisclosed financial sum in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

"This is a high-school journalism class that is supposed to be supervised, and the journalism instructor is letting the students do whatever they want with the paper," said Nathan Roberts, whose law firm, Connelly Law Offices, is representing the four students.

Karen Hansen, spokeswoman for the district, said the district hasn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't respond. She also declined to comment on the newspaper story.

Roberts compared the quotes that ran in the story to "graffiti on a bathroom wall."

In the article, one of the plaintiffs was quoted describing a sexual experience thusly: "I was 15. I was horny. It really wasn't a relationship at that point. I'd known the guy for a week."

The four were named in a February story about Emerald Ridge students' sex lives.

Reporters for the school newspaper asked students details about their experiences with sex, the lawsuit said. Students who were quoted "understood that their names would be withheld and their candid answers would be anonymous," the lawsuit said.

One of the plaintiffs said before the article was published she contacted a member of the JagWire staff to make sure her name wouldn't be used, and she was assured it would not, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the journalism instructor failed to take any action to protect the students named in the article. After the story ran, student journalists allegedly destroyed digital recordings "that would have confirmed that no permission was ever given or requested" to use the students' names, the lawsuit said.

"Plaintiffs were mocked, jeered and called 'sluts' and 'whores' and subject to ongoing sexual harassment, humiliation and embarrassment," the suit said.

The four students and their parents filed a claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the district May 8, Roberts said. Since then, two of the students have graduated, but the other two are still at Emerald Ridge, he added.

"It's not about money, it's about making the Puyallup School District aware that this personal, private information shouldn't be published," Roberts said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com